Government-compiled Regional Geographies and Nation-state Formation in Early Mei ji Japan

Abstract

In recent years, many historians of geography have engaged in the study of “critical histories”, in which the complicated relationships between geographical discourses and practices on the one hand, and power and nationalism on the other, are explored. From this perspective, the author has scrutinized the interconnections between governmental projects to compile regional geographies and nation-state formation in early Meiji Japan. The early bureaucrats of the Meiji government thought that they had to know the detailed geographical conditions of the nation to govern it rationally. This idea resulted in several governmental enterprises for the compilation of regional geographies at the national scale. In the beginning, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of the Army separately planned their own projects. While the Ministry of Civil Affairs failed to execute its project, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of the Army published Nihon Chishi Ryaku (Concise regional geography of Japan) in 1874 and Heiyo Nikon Chiri Shoshi (Brief military geography of Japan) in 1873, respectively. Meanwhile, Akikata Tsukamoto, a former official of the Ministry of the Army subsequently transferred to the Grand Council of State, launched the eight-volume Nikon Chishi Teiyo (The epitomized regional geography of Japan) in 1874-79. The work was dedicated to Emperor Meiji and exhibited at the second and third International Geographical Congresses held in Paris and Venice, respectively. Further, in 1875, Tsukamoto initiated a project to compile Kokoku Chishi (Regional geography of the Tenno state) based on the accumulation of detailed chorographic data on the national territory. As the supervisory agency for the project, the Geographical Bureau of the Home Ministry replaced the Grand Council of State in 1877. While Tsukamoto assigned the task of collecting chorographic data to provincial officials, Tsutomu Sakurai, director of the Geographical Bureau, insisted that the bureau's officials themselves should collect the data. After Tsukamoto's death in 1885, Sakurai terminated the Kokoku Chishi project and started a new project to compile the Dainippon Kokushi (Regional geography of great Japan). Although Sakurai had conceived a modern chorographic framework in which the description of natural phenomena should; precede that of human phenomena, the project was abandoned in the end because he was appointed to a prefectural governorship in 1889. Afterward, the task of the compilation of regional geographies was relegated to the Imperial University in 1890. However, Kowashi Inoue, upon being appointed Minister of Education in 1893, suspended the task because he considered descriptive regional geography to be useless for national integration through education. Neither Tsukamoto nor Sakurai thought that compiling regional geographies would contribute to national integration, although they maintained that it was one of the requirements for the state governance. Nevertheless, Nihon Chishi Ryaku, published by the Ministry of Education and widely used as a geography textbook in elementary schools, was in fact edited with the materials assembled for Nihon Chishi Teiyo compiled by Tsukamoto. This means that Nihon Chishi Teiyo, although not his intention, was used for national integration in modern Japan. This “unintended consequence” contributed in effect to the formation of the nation-state.